Still my favourite RTS to date with smooth fluid gameplay, great multiplayer and decent graphics and sound.
User Rating: 9.1 | Rise of Nations: Gold Edition PC
Rise of Nations, easily one of my most favourite PC games and also most played to date. I think this even outshines the mighty Total War series in terms of its simplistic gameplay, which makes it much more accssible for the slightly more casual player among us. The gameplay is the highpoint for me, personally, as it becomes so easy and natural to play the game; comparing this to micromanaging unit abilities in Battle for Middle Earth only emphasises my point. And yet you always find something to do in this game, you're never bored. Whether its simply building a caravan to create trade routes, upgrading your units through to the next level or planning your nuclear missile silo so it hits just on your enemies Wonder, its quite incredible. Watching your civilisation developing through the ages and expand their national borders gives you a personal link to your civilians, buildings and armies. Nowadays, the graphics are quite dated, but still very functional, meaning that this game will run even if you are stuck with integrated graphics, great for the more casual player who doesn't upgrade every six months. The sound is the worst point of the game, many of the sounds sound weak when played with say, laptop speakers and constrained with headphones or a 5.1 setup. The mulitplayer is great, although personally I suck at RTSs online (Counter Strike: Source player mostly). The campaign is slightly contrived, but overall it is very decent; you can win a standard campaign conquest in under 10 minutes once the game runs out of scripted matches. The relative freedom and good campaign map (not nearly as complex as Total Wars') make the singleplayer worth a shot.
This pack also contains the Thrones and Patriots expansion pack, which contains a few new campaigns and civilisations making this great value when you can get this for under a tenner in the UK. I can reccomend this game to almost everyone I know, and almost every gamer I know has it. 
